But whether you're digging in a faraway tropical paradise or somewhere a little bit closer to home, you're guaranteed to stumble across some amazing objects and make fascinating discoveries on what shaped and defined these ancient cultures. Indiana Jones, the world's most famous fictional archaeologist, was not only an academic and an adventurer, but also a detective tasked with uncovering the mysteries of the past.
And Hollywood isn't the only place where the lines between the archaeologist and the detective start to blur. Many leading academics have highlighted the parallels between the two professions , and it's easy to see why. Like those hard-nosed criminal investigators, archaeologists search for evidence and analyze the clues before coming to their conclusion. They often work on hunches and try to understand the reasons, or motives, for why early humans acted in certain ways or held specific beliefs.
It was this investigative approach that led one team to discover the legendary lost city of Ziklag in southern Israel, believed to be where King David the same David who defeated Goliath took refuge from his enemies. Ancient DNA samples and carbon testing of artifacts from the site have also raised many interesting questions on several more Old Testament stories, including Exodus, a founding myth of the Israeli people.
And if you really want to go deep into the origins of the world as we know it, then book a plane ticket to Egypt. Egyptology is a branch of archaeology and history that asks some of the biggest and most fascinating questions. Among the more traditional ideas about the pyramids, you will find more adventurous theories like the Orion correlation theory, which posits a correlation between the three largest pyramids in Giza and the stars in the constellation Orion's belt.
Other sites, like the Sphinx, suggest a knowledge of the universe that was way beyond or so we typically assume at least the technology of the time. This has led the more imaginative archaeologists to suggest the Pyramids may have been built by a race of people yet to be discovered, or even from beings beyond the stars!
Sound outlandish? Of course it does! Only there are plenty of Egyptian hieroglyphics that bear a striking resemblance to rockets, spaceships, and, dare we say it, UFOs?
But if all this is just too absurd for your tastes, then you can use all your archaeological skill to disapprove the theories and bring us all back down to earth! When it comes to higher education, we often find ourselves getting caught up in the most serious aspects.
View our safety measures. As a species, humans have always been fascinated by our ancestry and how we have evolved to where we are today. Dental archaeology and closely related sciences, such as bioarcheology and osteoarchaeology, help us to paint a better picture of our ancestors by studying teeth found during archaeological digs.
As we unearth and study the teeth of our ancestors, we begin to unravel the mystery behind who our ancestors really were and how they lived. Teeth excavated from archaeology sites around the world give us some insight into dietary trends of past civilizations. Wear and markings on specific areas of teeth can help us to figure out exactly what a person or population was accustomed to eating when they died.
Teeth that show normal wear and markings may indicate a diet predominantly consisting of meat, meaning that those individuals were hunters and gatherers. Caries, or cavities, in specific teeth can show us that agricultural crops had been incorporated into the diet.
The summers are for getting excavation experience. Lots of digs are happy to have student volunteers though some charge money for room and board, and sometimes tuition.
If you end up going on to graduate school, you will already have experience, which will help you advance faster. There are also all sorts of extra skills that are useful on a dig and for archaeological research. These include technical drawing of objects, photography, mapping and surveying, and various computer applications. If you learn how to do one or more of these, you can make yourself even more useful on an excavation — and increase your chances of getting a job when you graduate.
I love all aspects of what I do, including the parts that I have no choice about like getting up very early, and long airplane rides. Excavations are great, because I am outside, working with other people, and we are discovering new things together, which is very exciting and interesting.
Research is great, because I am curious and like to learn all sorts of stuff, so I enjoy being in the library, trying to figure out things and write it down in a way that makes sense to others. I suppose there is some stress involved in my job, in that I always have more things to do than time to do them in, so I am usually behind in something. But I am philosophical about this: most people in my position have the same problem, and we are all only human.
Some people get upset by these things. Probably the biggest drawback to this kind of job is that it can take over your life. But I have known archaeologists who never married or had children, and who truly gave themselves over to their career — and they were very happy.
Archaeology, for most of us, is a passion, maybe even a kind of obsession, one we are happy to give most of our time to. It makes the past feel real and alive — and it reminds me that it was filled with regular people going about their daily lives, just like today.
I think so, for two reasons. First, we humans are a curious species, and we are especially curious about ourselves. We are kind of self-centered that way: we are interested in our own past, how we came to be who we are, and how things were for those who lived before us. The second reason is that people are generally fascinated by objects and places from the past.
So I think there will always be people who want to be archaeologists or learn from them. I began going on excavations the year that I graduated from high school , and I have spent almost every summer since then doing just that. Nearly all entry-level archaeology positions require individuals to hold a minimum of a bachelor's degree in anthropology or a related field. Most archaeologists will go on to receive a master's or doctoral degree in a specific area of archaeological study.
The Society for American Archaeology recommends that aspiring archaeologists pursue a degree program that offers fieldwork opportunities and archaeological labs.
The following are the steps you will need to take to become a practicing archaeologist:. The first step for aspiring archaeologists is to complete a bachelor's program in anthropology or a related field such as history or geography. Many archaeology undergraduate programs give students hands-on experience through laboratory classes and fieldwork programs. Many budding archaeologists choose to participate in an internship program either during or after they complete a bachelor's program.
Internships provide fieldwork experience that is necessary for many archaeology jobs. Common places that may offer archaeological internships include museums, government agencies and archaeological organizations. While entry-level archaeologist positions may only require a bachelor's degree, most all other archaeological jobs will require you to have a master's degree. Master's degrees allow students to further develop the technical skills needed to work as archaeologists as well as choose which field of archaeology they wish to focus on.
Common master's degrees offered for this profession include anthropology and archaeology programs. If you wish to work as an archaeological professor in a college or lead high-level archaeological projects, you will likely be required to hold a Ph. Doctorate degrees typically take two to three years to complete in addition to several months of field research related to a dissertation.
Depending on the type of archaeologist you want to be and where you want to work, you can begin to seek employment after you receive your bachelor's or master's degree. Finding an archaeological job as soon as you are eligible is important to gaining experience that will allow you to advance within your career.
Entry-level jobs for archaeologists include site excavation technicians, research assistants and archaeological laboratory technicians.
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